"When I tell my friends in Sigil that every year has a name on Toril, they scoff at me, thinking this an exaggeration. I have little room for such things in my life as exaggeration, and thus often have to produce the hefty list of names of years for them: for the Prophecies of Alaundo are long, and the year names often enigmatic even in retrospect. Why was it called the Year of the Warrior Princess? Why will this year be the Year of the Three Sails? Some years are obvious: the Year of Blue Fire is quite obviously a reference to the Spellplague, making Alaundo's sight long and troubling indeed. I look forward to 1500: the Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed!"
Time in the Forgotten Realms is recorded differently than it is in our world, and for the better: while Toril has 365 days, weeks and days are run differently. Instead of weeks, they divide months into tendays, which are literally ten day intervals. There are 12 months in the year, corresponding to the faces of the moon. Every month has 30 days, divided into 3 tendays, with a number of holidays dividing months from time to time, with solstices and equinoxes interspersed within. This is known as the Calendar of Harptos.
While many cultures have many calendars based on a number of things, the most commonly used is Dale Reckoning outside of Shou Lung and Zakhara. Beginning in Year 1, the Year of Sunrise, each year is marked by a name, drawn from the list Augartha the Mad who wrote a name for each year between what is -700 Dale Reckoning (DR) to the year 1600, nearly a century from now. Alaundo of Candlekeep took this list and edited it, and thus many think him responsible for its creation: some years he did name, as Augartha's list was damaged, but the names prove no less apt. Most names have borne fruit, referring to events great and small, yet most remain relatively unknown to history.
This game begins in the year 1492 DR, the Year of Three Ships Sailing. Below, see a reckoning of the Calendar of Harptos.
